If you’ve ever had a “gut feeling” that was neither insightful nor pleasant, it might be your toothpaste’s fault. Like most of our body’s systems, we only pay attention to our tummy’s functions when something goes wrong. Usually we’re more focused on the size of our guts, not how well they are working. Unfortunately, for the growing numbers who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, problems can crop up unexpectedly –– often after months or even years without an issue. Last year, a team of researchers discovered a surprising link between tummy trouble and an additive found in everything from toothpaste to yoga mats. What is it and what’s being done to protect the public?
A Complex Community
It’s kind of incredible, the action going on in our stomachs. And that isn’t limited to evenings after a spicy tuna roll or an ill-timed burrito. No, living within our guts is an amazing community of microorganisms called a microbiome. Similar bacterial collectives can be found collaborating in the mouth, the skin, and the vagina. Still, they are most numerous in the gut’s microbiome where bacteria outnumber human cells ten to one. Astonishingly, if you removed the microbiome it would weigh nearly ten pounds.
This collection of different bacteria work together to help us digest food. They also affect immune response. Yet the very existence of the gut’s microbiome was basically theoretical throughout most of the last century. It took advanced technology capable of examining its function on a genetic level along with the work of teams of scientists, biological chemists, physicists, and others to demonstrate how vital good gut health is to our overall well being.
We now understand on a cellular level how important it is for our gut to be in harmony. The microbiome’s collection of good and bad bacteria needs to be in perfect balance. When it isn’t, inflammation can increase even as the immune system weakens. This elevates your risk for everything from cancer to COVID-19. Researchers have been working to establish a link between specific bacteria in our gut’s microbiome and tumor growth. Now a team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is exploring the connection between a healthy gut and a chemical additive that is supposed to safely freshen your breath.
The Terrible Toothpastes
Designed to prevent bacterial contamination, the chemical triclosan has been added to dozens of items. Everything from toys to kitchenware to yoga mats has gotten a dose of triclosan. It’s important to note that in the United States, those things are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, on some items that it does oversee, the agency has been fairly aggressive. In 2017, for example, they ordered that triclosan be removed from any hand washing products. The focus then was on the risk that its bacteria-killing properties may lead to strains of deadly drug-resistant bacteria in homes and hospitals. The agency has continued to allow its use in toothpaste where studies have shown its effectiveness in reducing “plaque and gingival inflammation, a necessary precursor to the development of more periodontal disease.” Researchers at UNC believe that may be a mistake.
In collaboration with scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Hong Kong Baptist University, they examined how specific gut bacteria in mice was triggered by triclosan. How our stomachs handle additives is significant in part because the percentage of Americans diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis has increased dramatically over the past two decades.
Developing in the rectum and innermost lining of the large intestine, ulcerative colitis can cause inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract. Symptoms get progressively worse, including rectal agony and bloody diarrhea along with accompanying weight loss and fatigue. With similar symptoms, Crohn’s disease causes expanding inflammation that can eventually reach the deepest layers of the bowel. Both conditions lack a cure or a known cause. That’s why research like the one led by the team at UNC is so vital.
Within the mice’s gut microbiome, the researchers zeroed in on beta-glucuronidase (GUS) proteins. When triclosan entered a mouse’s stomach, those enzymes switched from working in harmony with the bacteria to sowing chaos. When a microbiome-targeted inhibitor was introduced, it blocked triclosan processing. This had the effect of protecting the tiny mouse colon while eliminating colitis symptoms.
As study author Matthew Redinbo, a chemistry and microbiology professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill College of Arts & Sciences and UNC School of Medicine points out, “By identifying the culprit bacteria, new approaches could be developed for the diagnoses, prevention, and treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.” Although challenging given the additive’s ubiquity, avoiding triclosan-infused products may be helpful for anyone with IBD symptoms. The study itself is less forgiving, suggesting that more attention needs to be paid to how the additive triggers “…a mechanism by which intestinal microbes contribute to the metabolic activation and gut toxicity of TCS [triclosan], and highlight the importance of considering the contributions of the gut microbiota in evaluating the toxic potential of environmental chemicals.” The FDA continues to explore the risks of the additive.
Written by John Bankston
References
- What is a microbiome?
- Having Healthy Gut Bacteria Is Important for Overall Health and Cancer Prevention
- Microbiome-derived inosine modulates response to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy
- Five Things to Know About Triclosan
- Q&A for Consumers: Health Care Antiseptics
- Triclosan produces statistically significant reduction in plaque, gingivitis and caries but not clinically important benefit
- Microbial enzymes induce colitis by reactivating triclosan in the mouse gastrointestinal tract
- Data and Statistics: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in the United States
- Ulcerative colitis
- Crohn’s disease